Not knowing relevant industry nomenclature and not showing and understanding of basic business concepts is keeping PhDs from getting their dream industry position. 

Isaiah will show you 11 key business concepts that you already have and can leverage to show employers your business acumen.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

-First, Isaiah explains why PhDs need to understand what some industry nomenclature means if they want to transition into industry.

-Then, he will present some common business concepts and how they relate to the transferable skills you learned during grad school.

-Finally, you will learn how to communicate each of those transferable skills during your job search to showcase your business acumen.

From This Week’s Show…

As A PhD, You Already Have Business-Related Transferable Skills 

Today, I wanted to go through 11 key concepts that will help you understand a business in terms of its context. So you can start navigating different business ideas.

You can develop your business acumen, your ability to make business decisions. Now, one of the frameworks I want to start with that I think will give you is a good place to start and it’s also where I started in my journey crossing over from academia to industry, is to look around you the next time that you’re working in a lab or a classroom. There’s going to be materials and products that you use.

I also noticed that at the beginning of my journey. What I should had realized at the time is that the companies that make those products hire people like me. And they prefer to hire someone who has used their products over someone who hasn’t because the former have product knowledge.

Product knowledge is a transferable skill that’s very valuable. And many of you have product knowledge of different products. Again, it could be software programs, reagents instruments, or teaching materials.

Why PhDs Must Understand Industry Nomenclature

A study made by Dow Chemical showed that a lack of industry understanding is the number one deficiency that PhDs, postdocs, and other people coming out of academia have when it comes to getting hired in industry. If employers are looking at you, they want to evaluate how big that gap is for you. How much do you lack an understanding of industry?

There’s another reason for you to start learning to speak the language of industry, start understanding key business concepts, like the ones we’re going to go through. And it’s because, for the industries you want to get into, if you don’t understand business concepts, you’re very likely going to get into junior roles.

We’ve seen this. We have thousands of people in our cheeky scientist association and our advanced programs and the ones who get into senior level roles or principal level roles are the ones that can display their transferable skills and their business acumen, their understanding of business concepts. Those who can’t, or who refuse to learn this and who just focus on these niche, technical skills end up in junior roles, often working side by side or beneath people with bachelors or masters.

** for the full podcast, check out the audio player above.

To get advanced access to the full length versions of these podcasts, as well as access to our live training webinars, exclusive training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, transition plan, and private online network, get on the waitlist for the Cheeky Scientist Association now.